Principal News

Hello everyone,

As we come towards the end of Term 3 I’d like to acknowledge all the hard work of all the staff and students at Brookside College.

We have had several major events across the college including the Year 5 and Year 9 Camps. These were both very successful events. The students loved getting off-site developing even stronger relationships whilst having fun and learning in a different context. This year is the first we have had a camp in every year level from Year 3 to Year 9. We will be providing the location and dates for 2020 camps before the end of this term so families can start saving and getting excited for next year’s camps.

Parents have again recently raised with me the issues they are facing around pick up and drop off time. I appreciate and understand the difficulties you are facing with this. I have been in contact with Steve Abboushi, local council member, and we are working together to develop a plan that will ensure a safe and efficient drop off and pick up for all our students. In the interim please be very mindful of the signage around the area.

As you may have seen in the news NAPLAN results have been released by the states and territories. We will soon receive individual student’s reports and these will be sent home with students who completed the assessments in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. As we have said before NAPLAN is one assessment on one day for the students. Although it is an important measure of your child’s achievement this should also be compared with the teacher’s judgements for your child. And please remember this, the NAPLAN assessments measure English and Mathematics – the results won’t tell you how creative, kind, generous, funny, adventurous etc. you child is.

This term we recruited a Special Needs Teacher to support some of our students. Becky Huddleston (below) has been working with several of our students, especially those in the Prep-2 sector of our school. Becky works with students both individually and in small groups and has been providing coaching to our teaching staff so we can meet the individual needs for all our students.

In Week 10 of term we will again be holding Parent Teacher Interviews. This is a fantastic opportunity to discuss your child’s achievements, progress and next steps. Please find below five key questions that you can ask your child’s teacher.

What is my child learning?
How is he or she doing?
How do you know (how he or she is doing)?
How can he or she improve?
What supports can I provide and can you provide if she or he is struggling? When will we check in again?

We will be holding our End of Term Assembly on Thursday 19th of September at 2:15pm. Our Whole School Assemblies have been an excellent way to celebrate all the hard work of our students. There will also be several music performances from the very talented students in our school. If you are free it would be great to see you there.

Thanks,

Adam Bright